How to Copyright Your Screenplay to Protect Your Ideas

It’s tempting to be worried that someone out there might steal your idea, but according to Scriptnotes co-creator John August (Big Fish, Go), “‘someone might steal my idea’ is more often the fear of an aspiring writer who’s never put pen to paper than of a working screenwriter.” 

This is because most ideas aren’t actually that original, so two writers with the same logline will create two very different scripts. When copyright actually becomes important is when a piece of intellectual property requires legal protections against being transferred, sold, or bartered. 

While unofficially it isn’t put into practice too much, officially, yes, we should all copyright our screenplays. Let’s get into how to do that, what it means, and other ways to protect our intellectual property. 

COPYRIGHT

In order to copyright literary works, you must register then through the U.S. Copyright Office. Creatively, this can include written projects (fiction, non–fiction, scripts, stage plays, music, lyrics) as well as visual arts (artwork, illustrations, jewelry, architecture), digital content, motion pictures, and photographs.

Screenplays fall under the Performing Arts category as defined by The Copyright Act.

The Copyright Act states that performing a work “means to recite, render, play, dance, or act it, either directly or by means of any device or process or, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to show its images in any sequence or to make the sounds accompanying it audible.” (17 U.S.C. § 101)

Registration can be done electronically. You will create an account, enter your title, fill out some information about the project (has it been published, what year was it completed, etc), fill out information about the author and the author’s contribution, and contact information. You will submit a copy of the work (either electronically or physically) and pay a fee. The application will be processed — and if the project has never been previously published and there is only one author, it will most likely be straight forward and approved. 

In 2025, the cost is between $45 and $65 depending on the project. Physical applications can cost up to $125.

Copyright offers protections and rights that include the ability to produce the work, publicly perform or display the work, or create derivative works. 

It does not prevent someone else from writing a similar project, hence why we have ‘twin films’ like Armageddon (1998) and Deep Impact (1998), Dante’s Peak (1997) and Volcano (1997), Chasing Liberty (2004) and First Daughter (2004), and No Strings Attached (2011) and Friends with Benefits.

WRITERS GUILD FOUNDATION REGISTRATION

Registering your work with the WGA documents the claim of authorship of a written work. It does not take the place of registering with the Library of Congress U.S. Copyright Office (which documents the rights of a written work). Both create legal evidence that can be used in court if someone blatantly steals your actual screenplay. 

Oftentimes, contests, agents, managers, or producers will require WGA registration as a record of authorship on a given date — it provides a dated record of a writer’s claim if legal action is initiated.

You do not need to be a WGA member to register your screenplay through the WGA. You can also register other materials such as treatments, synopses, outlines, and written ideas specifically intended for performing arts or literary work.

Registration is done online and involves filling out information about the registrant and the work, a submission of the work, and a fee ($20 for non-WGA members, $10 for members).

WGA registration is valid for a term of five years. Upon expiration, registration may be renewed for an additional five-year period at the current registration rate.

TRADEMARK

Sometimes people will want to protect their titles. You can’t copyright a title or register it with the WGA. Sometimes you can trademark a title, but it is not very common. A title like Transformers comes with that little ™ because it was originally a toy line.

Producers can register a title with the Motion Picture Association (MPAA) as a film inches closer to production, which gives it some exclusivity. “As we started shooting The Nines, we had to clear the title against The Whole Nine Yards and a few others. Likewise, we had to give our blessing to the subsequent movies 9 and Nine,” shared August.

MPAA title registration isn’t a legal copyright, however; it’s a system specific to the motion picture industry.

COPYRIGHT LAW

As a final thought, copyright protection for literary works applies automatically when a work is authored and saved in a tangible form. It does not protect themes or ideas, but the way they are expressed in written form. So if you tell your friend that you want to write a Romeo and Juliet adaptation between a Velociraptor and a Triceratops and next thing you know she submits Raptor and Triceriet* to Nicholl’s…well…she might not be a good friend, but she hasn’t broken any copyright law. Not even if you had your script polished and ready to go.

Now, if you have an email documenting that you sent her a copy of your script and she’s got lines of dialogue directly from your balcony scene…you just may have a case in arbitration. 

*sorry, this metaphor went to a weird place